Trump Refuses To Resign - Doesn't Trust Pence To Pardon

I have said on this blog that the smart move for Trump would be to resign, and let Pence pardon him. That is not going to happen.

I think the main reason is Trump's rampant narcissism. He cannot be seen as giving in to his enemies or being weak. But their has emerged another reason. He doesn't trust Mike Pence to pardon him!

Frankly, I don't blame him. The way he has treated Pence in the last couple of weeks could well encourage the Vice-President to withhold a pardon.

Trump tried to pressure Pence to break the law and throw out electors from states that voted against Trump. When Pence said he could not legally do that, Trump bad mouthed him to his MAGA followers. Then sent them to Capitol Hill together Pence, and the rioters could be heard chanting "Hang Pence".

Why should Pence pardon a seditionist who put his life in danger?

Here's a tiny part of how CNN.com is covering Trump's last few days in office.

Trump has been consumed by the unraveling of his presidency during his last days in office, according to people around him, which included a casual discussion among advisers recently about a possible resignation.

Trump shut the idea down almost immediately. And he has made clear to aides in separate conversations that mere mention of President Richard Nixon, the last president to resign, was banned.

He told one adviser during an expletive-laden conversation recently never to bring up the ex-president ever again. During the passing mention of resigning this week, Trump told people he couldn't count on Vice President Mike Pence to pardon him like Gerald Ford did Nixon, anyway.

Eager for a final taste of the pomp of being president, Trump has asked for a major send-off on Inauguration Day next week, according to people familiar with the matter, before one last presidential flight to Palm Beach.

But the signs of his impending departure are everywhere -- including right outside his window. Workers hung bunting Thursday that read "2021 Biden-Harris Inauguration" from temporary stands across from the White House North Portico. It was visible from his third-story residence.

Inside the building, Trump has been weathering a second impeachment and growing isolation from his onetime allies in sullen desolation. He has grown more and more worried about what legal or financial calamities may await him when he is no longer president, people who have spoken to him said, fueled by warnings from lawyers and advisers. He is weighing pardons, including for himself and his family, as he attempts to muster a legal team for another impeachment trial. And he is resentful of Republicans who he feels abandoned him in his hour of need, including the GOP leaders of the House and Senate.

Aides have pleaded with Trump to deliver some type of farewell address, either live or taped, that would tick through his accomplishments in office. But he has appeared disinterested and noncommittal.

The Smart Move For Trump Would Be To Resign

I know that Donald Trump is not very smart. I know that he is a raging narcissist. And I know that he is desperately trying to hold on to power. Those things together make it very unlikely that he would resign his office.

But he should. Not because it would be the best thing for the country. He doesn't care about this country or its citizens (except for a few family members and some rich friends). But because it would be in his own best interest.

Trump is in some serious legal trouble. I'm not talking about his Russia problems (although that could still bounce back on him), but his more recent actions -- things he has done after losing the election to Joe Biden. Specifically, trying to pressure election officials and legislatures into overturning the will of the voters, and urging his supporters to attack the Capitol to force lawmakers into keeping him in power (promoting a coup).

These are serious charges, and unless he is given a pardon, could result in years in a federal prison.

It is reported that he is considering many pardons for his family and aides to be announced a day or two before leaving office -- and that one of those pardons would be for himself. That's not going to work.

A self-pardon would be immediately challenged in Court, and likely be voided. Allowing a president to pardon himself would mean he was above the law. No one is above the law in this country. While the president is powerful, and cannot be arrested or charged with a crime while in office (according to a ridiculous Department of Justice ruling), it would be unconstitutional to allow him to be above the law after leaving office.

A self-pardon could also bounce back on him. By pardoning himself, he would be admitting that he thinks he has broken one or more laws -- and that could be used against him at a trial.

He does need a pardon, but there's only one way to get one that wouldn't be overturned by the Supreme Court. He would have to resign, and hope Pence would give him one (like Ford pardoned Nixon). Of course this would mean mending his fences with Pence -- after condemning him for not breaking the law to keep Trump in power, and urging a mob of supporters to go after Pence.

He brought Pence to the White House on Monday, and aides said the two men had a pleasant talk. This makes me think he is trying to get back in good with Pence -- in case he needs him for a pardon.

Will Trump resign? Would Pence pardon him if he did? I don't know, but it is the only path Trump has to get what he needs -- a pardon. We'll have to wait and see if he has enough sense to realize that.

The Fly - A Metaphor For Pence's Tenure As Vice-President

 

During the vice-presidential debate, a fly landed on Mike Pence's head. It stayed there for over two and a half minutes, and was ignored by Pence.

David Frum, in The Atlantic, views that as a fitting metaphor for Pence's tenure as vice-president:

We saw a weird moment when a fly landed on Pence’s snow-white hair—and the vice president did not react at all. No doubt, it’s a conundrum, what to do in such a situation. If Pence had shooed the fly and the fly had refused to shoo, that would have been bad. So he did nothing. And that doing nothing somehow in one powerful visual moment concentrated everything. It symbolized the whole Pence vice presidency, the determined, willful refusal to acknowledge the most blaring and glaring negative realities. Through all of the scandals and the crimes and the disasters of the past four years, Mike Pence was the man who pretended not to notice. And now there was a fly on his head, and he pretended not to notice that too.

Biden Gets Favorability Bump - Trump Does Not

The charts above are from the ABC News / Ipsos Poll -- done latest on August 28th and 29th of a national sample of 732 adults, with a 3.9 point margin of error.

It shows the favorability of the candidates before and after their conventions. Joe Biden was viewed favorably by 40% of adults before the Democratic convention. After that convention, the number had risen to 45%. Donald Trump was viewed favorably by 32% before the Republican convention. After that convention, his favorability was 31%.

Joe Biden got a significant bump in how adults viewed him, but Donald Trump did not. The current difference in favorability is about 15 points for Biden over Trump. Biden has a 6 point positive difference in favorability (46% favorable to 40% unfavorable), while Trump has a 28 point negative difference (31% favorable to 59% unfavorable).

The same is true in the vice-presidential race. Kamala Harris got a big bump in favorability from the Democratic convention, while Mike Pence did not get a bump from the Republican convention. The current favorability in 43% for Harris and 31% for Pence -- a 12 point difference.

Biden Keeps Lead Post-Convention - Increases Favorability

The chart above is from the CBS News / YouGov Poll -- done between August 20th and 22nd of a national sample of 957 registered voters, with a 3.7 point margin of error.

It shows that Joe Biden continues to lead Donald Trump by about 10 points. That's about the same as it was before the convention.

That's probably because most voters have already made up their minds on whether to give Trump another four years or not -- and a majority are ready to kick him out of office.

But as the charts below show, while the convention may not have changed the race electorally, it has increased the voters favorable rating of Joe Biden. It is making voters feel better about their choice to vote for Biden. Before the convention, Biden had a 5 point advantage in favorability (40% to 35%). After the convention, he has a 13 point advantage in favorability (45% to 32%).

The convention also improved the favorability rating of Kamala Harris. She had a 4 point advantage over Pence before the convention. After the convention, that advantage has grown to 11 points.

The charts below are from the ABC News / Ipsos Poll -- done on August 21st and 22nd of a national sample of 714 adults, with a 4 point margin of error.

Biden/Harris Viewed As More Moderate Than Trump/Pence

Donald Trump and the Republicans are doing their best to paint the Biden/Harris ticket as left-wing extremists. But the public is not buying it. They actually view the Trump/Pence ticket as more extremist than the Biden/Harris ticket.

The chart above is from the Morning Consult Poll -- done on August 12th of a national sample of 1,990 registered voters, with a 2 point margin of error.

Respondents were asked to place each candidate on a political scale where 1 is very liberal and 7 is very conservative. The average for Kamala Harris was was 2.5 and for Joe Biden was 2.8. That placed Harris 1.5 points away from the moderate middle and Biden 1.2 points from the middle.

Donald Trump had an average of 5.8 and Pence had an average of 6.0. That placed Trump 1.8 points from the moderate middle and Pence as 2 points from the middle.

In other words, Biden and Harris are viewed as more moderate than Trump and Pence.

That's a good thing, because the voting public tends to favor more moderate candidates.

The chart below, from the same poll, also has some good news for Democrats. It shows that since being chosen as the Democratic candidate for vice-president, Kamala Harris' popularity has substantially increased. Among all voters, her favorable rating has jumped up by 12 points.

Public Disapproves Of Trump/Pence Handling Of Pandemic

The chart above is from the Morning Consult Poll. They questioned 2,200 U.S. adults on how they thought differing people and organizations were handling the Coronavirus pandemic. The poll was done between May 1st and 3rd, and has a 2 point margin of error.

The chart shows the net approval (approval minus disapproval) for each.

The two entities receiving the highest net approval are the CDC and state governors. The two receiving the lowest net approval are Mike Pence (close to zero) and Donald Trump (below zero).

Pence Shows Himself To Be A Sycophant (Bigly)

There is no shortage of sycophants in the Trump administration. Trump can't stand to be corrected, or disagreed with, so he quickly gets rid of people who have a real opinion.

But there is one member among the administration's sycophants that stands out from the pack -- Mike Pence. Pence will happily cover for any of Trump's lies, and he'll do it with gusto. For him, Trump can't do or say anything wrong.

And that's not all he'll do to bend to Trump's will. He just visited Ireland -- and he stayed at a hotel nearly 200 miles from the meetings he had scheduled with Irish officials. Why? Because that was the closest Trump-owned hotel in Ireland (and his sycophancy wouldn't let him stay at a non-Trump hotel).

Here's how Jennifer Rubin describes Pence's pathetic behavior in The Washington Post:

There is not a more oleaginous sycophant in President Trump’s inner circle than Vice President Pence. Ironically, the one person Trump cannot fire is also the one most prone to elaborate expressions of loyalty that would put North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s courtiers to shame. Pence will defend any remark, make any argument and sacrifice any principle (e.g., support for federal law enforcement, get tough with dictators, free trade) to stay in Trump’s good graces.

Then it rose to a whole other level when he arranged to stay at his boss’s resort — hours from his arranged meetings in Ireland. This was not only a blatant example of Trump’s ability to induce members of his administration, members of his party and heads of state to stuff money into his pockets, but it put Pence in the position of participating into the great grifting enterprise. When caught and called out for this, the vice president argued that this was the only facility that could accommodate his large party in his family homestead (query why taxpayers had to foot the bill for a family reunion in the old country). Then, his chief of staff, Marc Short, let on that Trump “suggested” Pence stay there. Whoops!

The first rule of sycophancy is never reveal that the object of your sycophancy invited your tribute (financial or otherwise) — even when it is obvious in the case of Trump that he lives to induce (or invent!) praise from others. Doing so might make the object of your sycophancy seem, well, needy or even corrupt.

Sure enough, Trump disavowed any involvement — “It wasn’t my idea for Mike to go there. Mike went there because his family’s there. That’s my understanding.” — but did not deny outright dropping the suggestion.

A few questions, to say the least, remain: First, why hasn’t Short been fired if he didn’t misspeak and really did falsely accuse Trump of “suggesting” Pence visit the president’s Ireland golf resort? This seems like a very big screw-up, if you take the White House at its word.

Second, unless you’re on the White House payroll, a talk-radio or Fox News host, or a Trump cultist (but I repeat myself), you don’t actually believe Trump had nothing to do with this fiasco. That leaves open the question as to why Pence or Pence’s staff would ever put the vice president in this position. It does suggest that Pence is too dense even to be of use to Trump.

Third, one wonders what Nikki Haley, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, is thinking. Having spontaneously denied rumors that she was angling for Pence’s job or had a feud with the vice president, she might consider putting out a statement denying any rumors that she has done anything remotely as stupid as publicly feathering the president’s nest.

Finally, in an effort to clean up the mess, Short told the Times that Pence would pay for all his family’s expenses. (What about staff, transportation and security?) Umm, I think this is worse given that Pence now has decided to write a check directly to his boss’s company. Haley might want to start practicing a stump speech and making a highlight reel of her time at the United Nations.

Jim Carrey's Satirical Paintings Of Trump And His Allies

Comedian and actor Jim Carrey has taken up painting. His paintings are as effective as satire as anything he could say or write. Below are his paintings of Donald Trump (2), Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, Mike Pence, John Bolton, Scott Pruitt, and Rudy Giuliani.

Public Not Convinced Pence Would Be Better Than Trump

Although Trump's lawyers deny it, White House sources say Trump is asking about his right to pardon offenders (including his family members and himself). It's looking like Trump is starting to realize just how much trouble his administration is in, and that some of those troubles could even be criminal.

While Trump does have the right as president to pardon his aides and family members, I doubt that he could pardon himself. That doesn't even make sense. But issuing pardons wouldn't solve his problems. It would basically be an admission of guilt, and it would move Congress much closer to impeaching him and removing him from office.

That would make Mike Pence the president. Unfortunately for Pence, that's not something most Americans would like. Only 26% think Pence would be a better president than Trump (which, considering Trump's unpopularity, should be a big insult to Pence). Meanwhile 45% say Pence would not be a better president.

This chart was made from a new Rasmussen Poll -- done on July 16th and 17th of a random national sample of 1,000 likely voters, with a 3 point margin of error.

Trump Is Very Unpopular Among Younger Americans

These charts are from a new GenForward Survey -- done between February 16 and March 6th of a random national sample of 1,833 people between 18 and 30 years old, with a margin of error of 4 points.

It shows that most young Americans (by overwhelming margins) do not approve of Donald Trump as president. They don't like his policies or his demeanor, and most consider him to be an "illegitimate president".

And their opinion of the presidency wouldn't improve if Trump was removed and replaced by Pence. As the chart below shows, they have just as low an opinion of Vice-President Pence as they do of Trump.

The bottom chart gives me hope, and it should encourage all Democrats because it bodes well for the future. It shows that young Americans prefer the Democratic Party over the Republican Party by a large margin.

Trump And Pence Buy 800 Jobs With Taxpayer Money

The Republicans and trumpistas are celebrating what they claim is a big victory for the incoming Trump administration. They are claiming that Trump and Pence have saved over 1,000 jobs from be ing shipped to Mexico by Carrier (a division of United Technologies).

Trump had used Carrier's decision to ship a couple of thousand jobs to Mexico as a campaign theme. He promised that wouldn't happen if he was elected. Did he keep his promise? Not really.

First, only 800 jobs were actually kept in this country thanks to the Trump/Pence "deal" with Carrier. The other 300 jobs they are claiming to have saved were research and headquarters position -- which the company was never going to export.

Second, Carrier didn't keep those 800 jobs in Indiana out of the goodness of its corporate heart, or because Trump asked them to do it. They are receiving a very nice payoff -- they get $7 million dollars in tax cuts over the next 10 years -- about $8,750 in tax breaks for every job. That's not a "deal" -- it's a bribe (which I guess we should have expected, since Trump is used to paying bribes to get what he wants around the world).

In addition, Carrier's parent company (United Technologies) gets assurance that Trump won't interfere with their $5 billion in federal contracts.

This is not just a bad deal -- it's a terrible deal. And it sends a signal to every other American corporation. If you still owe any taxes after all the loopholes and subsidies you normally receive, then just threaten to move jobs to a low-wage country. The Trump administration will be happy to give you more millions in tax breaks. It makes millions more jobs a hostage to corporate greed.

And who gets to pay for those corporate tax breaks? State and federal taxpayers do. This may be a good deal to Trump, but it's a horrible deal for American taxpayers.

Third, Carrier (United Technologies) still gets to ship 600 jobs to Mexico from Indianapolis, and another 700 from Huntington, Indiana. So, after Trump's "great deal", 1300 jobs will still be lost to Mexico.

Is that your idea of a great deal?

(NOTE -- The image above is from YouTube.)

Hillary Clinton Is Among The Most Honest Politicians

(This chart contains all Politifact checks through 9/29/2016.)

I am getting more than a little sick of hearing the media say Hillary Clinton has an "honesty" problem -- not because I am a supporter of hers (which I am), but because it simply is not true.

The chart above is the Politifact Truth Index. Politifact is a non-partisan organization that checks the truthfulness of what politicians say. Note that Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine are among the four most truthful politicians (with the other two being Bernie Sanders and John Kasich).

Just the opposite is true about Donald Trump and Mike Pence. They are among the four most dishonest politicians (with the other two being Ted Cruz and Rick Santorum). And the most dishonest politician of all is Donald Trump (with less than 20% of what he says being true or mostly true).

I also noticed that many people are saying that Mike Pence won the vice-presidential debate. If true, it is just because he is good at lying calmly and with a straight face. Politifact checked the facts related in that debate. They said Pence was telling the truth only 31% of the time, while Tim Kaine was telling the truth 79% of the time.

Donald Trump has a huge "honesty" problem -- not Hillary Clinton.

Trump/Pence Logo Only Lasts One Day

After announcing Mike Pence as his running mate, the Trump campaign proudly released the new logo for the campaign (the top graphic). But it was met with much hilarity on social media, as people immediately made fun of it's sexual suggestibility. After only one day, it was scrapped, and replaced with the very boring bottom graphic.

Here are some examples of the fun being made of the original logo.

Veep Announcement Is An Embarrassment For Trump

Donald Trump is normally a master of public relations and media manipulation. But you wouldn't know that by looking at how his vice-presidential pick unfolded. It turned into a major embarrassment.

Trump wanted to keep his pick a secret until the last moment, and then surprise America with his pick on Friday morning. But with many Republicans running away from being the pick, Trump was left with only three possibilities -- Mike Pence, Chris Christie, and Newt Gingrich.

Christie and Gingrich were just names thrown about to keep suspense up, since both are as unpopular with the American public as Trump is. Pence had to be the pick, since he doesn't have the unfavorable numbers of the other two. In fact, most Americans don't know enough about him to know whether they like him or not (with a CBS/NYT Poll having him at 5% favorable and 8% unfavorable, while a Marist Poll showing him at 12% favorable and 21% unfavorable).

Picking Pence might have made Trump's nomination a bit more palatable to evangelical christians, but it did nothing to excite the huge majority of American voters -- and once they find out what Pence stands for, it's doubtful they'll be more excited. Trump just doubled down on right-wing extremism.

The mechanics of the pick were also mishandled. While Trump was on TV saying he still hadn't made a final decision, reporters took pictures of Pence arriving in New York City (and the only reason for him to be there was if he was the pick). All that did is make Trump look like a liar (which he certainly is).

Then, the day before the big announcement, a terrorist struck in Nice, France -- killing 84 people and wounding hundreds at their Bastille Day ceremonies. That pushed Trump's veep announcement off the news. Trump tried to save it by saying his announcement would be put off because of the tragedy. But that couldn't happen, because Pence had only until noon on Friday to take his name off the Indiana ballot (where he was running for re-election as governor, and Indiana law said he couldn't run for both offices at the same time).

In the end, Trump announced his vice-presidential pick on Twitter -- a weak and pathetic way to announce the pick. It was one of the most ignominious vice-presidential announcements of all time -- and had to be a huge embarrassment for the media master, Donald Trump.